(Nehemiah 4:1-6)
Nehemiah’s life is an example of leadership and organization. Giving up a comfortable and wealthy position in Persia, he returned to the fractured homeland of his ancestors and rallied the people to rebuild Jerusalem’s wall. In the face of opposition, he used wise defensive measures to care for the people and to keep the project moving To accomplish more for the sake of God’s kingdom, we must pray, persevere, and sacrifice, as did Nehemiah (taken from the NIV Life Application Bible).
As believers, we can do the same thing as Nehemiah did in rebuilding the wall of Jerusalem. We can lead and organize people for the advancement of His Kingdom exactly wherever we are right now. Sometimes, we have to leave our comforts in life and have to face mountain of problems and oppositions. There are times that even our loved ones will oppose to what we are doing for the Lord.
- Expect Opposition (verses 1 – 3)
1 [a]When Sanballat heard that we were rebuilding the wall, he became angry and was greatly incensed. He ridiculed the Jews, 2 and in the presence of his associates and the army of Samaria, he said, “What are those feeble Jews doing? Will they restore their wall? Will they offer sacrifices? Will they finish in a day? Can they bring the stones back to life from those heaps of rubble—burned as they are?”3 Tobiah the Ammonite, who was at his side, said, “What they are building—even a fox climbing up on it would break down their wall of stones!”
Nehemiah had faced opposition from Sanballat. We too have Sanballats around us opposing to what we are doing for the Lord.
a) Some will become angry (verse 1) – some are not happy and will become angry and will hinder us for doing great things for the Lord.
b) Some will ridicule us (verses 1 – 3) – some will make fun, question our abilities / resources and even insult us.
- Turn to God (verses 4 – 5)
4 Hear us, our God, for we are despised. Turn their insults back on their own heads. Give them over as plunder in a land of captivity. 5 Do not cover up their guilt or blot out their sins from your sight, for they have thrown insults in the face of[b] the builders.
The great thing is that we can always turn to God and bring to His attention all the problems and oppositions that we face in working to His Kingdom.
a) Humbly call God (verse 4) – God is always there to listen to our cry.
b) Request action from God (verse 4) – we can always ask God to help and defend us.
- Continue the work (verse 6)
6 So we rebuilt the wall till all of it reached half its height, for the people worked with all their heart.
God will surely empower us as we go on with the work that God wants us to do.
a) Do your assignment – by doing our part on the work, we will surely see the fruit of our labor.
b) Do the work wholeheartedly – God recognizes even small thing as long as we are doing it wholeheartedly.
In conclusion, as follower of God we have to prepare ourselves to face oppositions from the people around us or even from our loved ones. But the great news is that we can always turn to God and expect His empowerment as we continue to do our work for His Kingdom. This is an encouragement to all of us that we can always depend on Him and will surely accomplish something, in spite of many difficulties. Therefore, let us all start and continue building the wall of God’s Kingdom by doing something significant.
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